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Well-designed illustrations in the life sciences and medicine clarify research in publications, validate experiments, and can be included in grant applications. Moreover, illustrations also play an exceptionally large role in biology instruction. Students struggle with understanding the sizes of cells, molecules, and atoms in relation to one another as well as within biological processes at different scales.
For example, for years, illustrations of signaling pathways were created using simple shapes (circles, squares) connected by arrows. With the discovery of defined molecular interactions, these diagrams often now incorporate information on the structure and interaction of the submicroscopic elements. These illustrations can no longer be created manually in Photoshop or PowerPoint. They need more sophisticated tools such as Adobe Illustrator or BioRender for publications and instruction.
BioRender, used often since its launch in 2017, is a web-based tool specifically designed for life-sciences and medical illustration. This is no surprise since visualization as a means of communication is a skill few scientists and instructors are taught. Some features of BioRender are free for educational use and easy to use. Although the free version does not allow you to publish images, this is the best option for you to initially explore. (If you want to publish the cost is currently $35 monthly for one person - paid annually - or $ 99.00 monthly - paid annually - for a lab with 5 researchers.)
Upon launching the software, you are presented with a canvas — either blank, or loaded with any of nearly 200 prepared templates in broad categories such as Pathways, Lab and Protocols, Genetics, Anatomy and Clinical, Backgrounds, and others. Here are some examples of templates: Kidney Reabsorption and Secretion, P53 Regulation and signaling, Protein Translation Cascade, CRISPR Screening Protocol, and a Blood Vessel (more are depicted below).
Simple drag-and-drop functionality and a side panel allow you to add text, arrows, and pre-designed icons. BioRender has a library of over 20,000 icons covering biochemistry, cell biology, immunology, microbiology, ecology, bioscience equipment, medicine, neuroscience, etc. You can even search for biomolecules via the RCSB Protein Databank and convert them to an icon with one click. In addition, you can request new icons, such as new DNA recombination intermediate structures, in as little as 48 hours. You can export the resulting illustrations to JPG, PNG, and PDF to your desktop, and then share them. The illustrations rendered are high-quality figures, and aesthetically pleasing. Scientists, students, and graduate students can use these illustrations for lectures, presentations, posters, publications, and much more.
Images
Image 1: Fig. 1 From: The role of hedgehog signaling in gastric cancer: molecular mechanisms, clinical potential, and perspective
Image 2: Examples of ready made templates to choose from.
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